Bulbous Purple Nightshade Tale

Eggplant Parmesan ala Busy Mom

Many varieties, many uses :)

This week in our CSA box, we snagged two purple beauties, and the first thing that came to my mind with eggplants was Parmesan!I was hoping it would be more fall like this week but today was more smokey than anything. I still wanted this cheesy goodness so baked it even thought the weather wasn't perfect for it.

Eggplants, when cooked wrong, are chewy and can turn you off of dinner quickly. I perused the internet and found a few ideas to create the following dish delish! I used my own canned tomato sauce for this recipe, but I'm sure you can use store bought just as well. The home canned sauce was amazing though, and organic and cheap because I made it!

And it wasn't all that hard!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients: * means its local

2 medium eggplants *

3 eggs *

1 sleeve saltine crackers

1/2 cup flour *

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp dried oregano *

1 tablespoon salt

3 tbl olive oil

2 pints spaghetti sauce *

3 cups shredded cheese (we used Parmesan, cheddar, and Monterrey jack) *

Slice your eggplants into 1/2 inch rounds, put them in a colander and rub with salt, allow them to sit for an hour if you have the time, 30 minutes if you need less.

In a small bowl, whip your eggs with a fork until thoroughly combined. In another medium bowl, crush your crackers and mix them with the flour, garlic salt, and oregano.

Blot your eggplants on paper towels. Heat a pan to medium high heat with your oil in it until the oil shimmers. Batter your eggplant pieces in egg first, then flour mixture, then egg again, then flour mixture again. Saute them in the oil for 6-8 minutes a side, until golden brown but also allowing the middle to soften and the batter to crisp.

Fry your eggplants in batches until done and set them aside.

In a baking dish (I used an 8X8) pour a pint of sauce on the bottom. Then add a layer of fried eggplants and then 1/2 of your cheese mixture. Add another layer of eggplant, another pint of spghetti sauce and the rest of your cheese.

Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes or so, and when you remove them, let them sit for ten minutes before serving. They were crunchy, cheesy, saucy and awesome!